Patrick Dempsey started his entertainment career as an award-winning juggler and a unicyle rider. Some 30 years later, he's essentially doing the same thing only on a much more sophisticated level and a few more wheels.

Now, instead of juggling balls in a vaudeville act, he's balancing a highly successful acting career with a pro sports car racing career. And he's doing quite well at both.

The star of the acclaimed television series, "Grey's Anatomy," is currently also racing in the American Le Mans Series, which competes this week at Lime Rock Park.

Dempsey and teammate Andy Lally will compete in the GT Challenge Class of the ALMS Northeast Grand Prix, with practice today, qualifying Friday and the 2-hour, 45-minute race Saturday.

As a prominent actor who also races, he's been compared by many to Steve McQueen and Paul Newman, but he tries not to buy into the hype. Comparisons resurfaced, however, after Dempsey competed last week at sports car racing's most prestigious event, the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France. McQueen starred in the 1971 movie, "Le Mans," and Newman not only raced at Le Mans in 1979, but finished second overall and first in class.

"Steve McQueen is such an iconic figure that it is sometimes a bit of a shadow," Dempsey said.

See DEMPSEY, Page 9B

"There's no way you can live up to that kind of expectation. It's such an honor to be mentioned with him, but yeah, I think for me, I can't think about that so much. He's an actor and I'm an actor, and we're both coming to Le Mans. And Paul Newman, too."

While Dempsey was at Le Mans to compete as part of the only all-American team in the iconic international event, he was also finishing up shooting a four-part documentary mini-series, "Patrick Dempsey: Racing Le Mans," which has been two years in the making. Filmed in conjunction with Discovery Channel, the series will premiere Aug. 28 on the Velocity Network in the U.S.

"A lot of our documentaries are about McQueen and Newman, and their passions for racing, and I think that's what we share, a real love for racing, a real love for this event," Dempsey said.

Dempsey and teammates Patrick Long and Joe Foster finished fourth in their class, GTE-AM. Narrowly missing out on a podium finish by 90 seconds, the team did lead their class on several occasions during the 24 hours with Dempsey leading twice during his second shift in the Porsche 911 GT3 RSR they were driving.

Long, a highly successful professional driver, was impressed with Dempsey's driving abilities, attention to detail and competitive nature. He said Dempsey is clearly underrated as a racer because everyone thinks of him as an actor who is just out to have fun in a race car.

"He's a very intense competitor, very focused, but what I even underestimated is his fitness," Long said. "We went testing in Misano, and the team was worn out. They were looking at me because I've run with them previously over in Europe, and they were like, 'We're out of tires. We're out of fuel and this guy still wants to drive.' And he's here to put the numbers up and not just to show up and look the part."

Dempsey is in pursuit of his first professional win. In five years of racing in the Grand-Am Rolex Series, his best finish has been third in the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

Last year in the ALMS race at Lime Rock, he finished third in class and he was the runner-up at Road America.

This May at Monterey, in the last ALMS race prior to Le Mans, Dempsey and Andy Lally were leading on the last lap when an incident with a prototype sent their car briefly off the course and forced them to settle for second.

"We've had some good results and came close to winning the last race," Dempsey said. "It was a bit of a heartbreak, losing out on the last lap when I thought we had a breakthrough victory there. But you know, it just inspires us, and now we have a real sense that we can compete and win in that class. It is our intention to complete the season. We want to go after a championship, if we can."

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